Cell Phone Ringtones Give Music Industry Another Headache

Alien54 writes "Xingtone's desktop software allows you to create mobile phone ringtones using digital audio files on your computer. As seen here, The software evokes the same ``oh wow, oh no'' reaction from the labels that greeted the original Napster. The fear is that people will make 30 second long ringtones out of popular songs, thus compounding the file-sharing problem while robbing the music industry of a new source of revenue. Many users find the technology quite cool. IANAL, but current copyright guidelines seem to permit fair use of "Up to 10% of a body of sound recording, but no more than 30 seconds". All of which should make for an interesting legal debate. I can hear the gnashing of teeth already."

oh.. they have had it now...

[Kjuib]

30 secs of Wayne Newton as a ringtone... what will the music industry do?!

nothing to worry about

[mister_jpeg]

I predict the phenonmenon of making ringtones out of the latest teen pop will fade quickly as more and more annoying idiots are beaten to death with their own phones. It's happened in isolated incidents before but now we'll have critical mass.

Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't wait to put my latest composition "A Passage of Wind" on my phone!

Great.

[saintlupus]

Yeah, because "Classical Music Butchered Beyond Hope" isn't obnoxious enough. I work at a college. I can't wait for every shitty pop song to be blaring out of some asshat's saggy A&F jeans during class when his roommate's older brother calls to say he got the beer.

Fucking christ. You know the only people that use this are going to be people infatuated with dreadful pop music. It's the same phenomenon as loud car stereos -- I don't think I've ever pulled up to someone with a thumping car at a traffic light and thought, "Oh, good, I really like this song."

--saint

Music industry sues oxygen users

[Anonymous Coward]

"That oxygen is ours. We paid for it. It's used to create the high quality music you find at your local vendor. If we find anyone using or sharing that oxygen we'll have no choice but to seek reparations in court. We don't like to be heavy handed, we're just protecting our clients."

I'm waiting for them to hit this stage...then maybe they'll finally run out of things to bitch about..

Open source version?

[Anonymous Coward]

That way Xingtone will be mad about people ripping off their idea to rip off the music industry.

Re:Dude, seriously...

[LostCluster]

You can't fault the RIAA for trying to soak the maximum value out of everything they do, that's just plain the nature of greed and we all have it to some degree.

Still, we just have to be organized enough to realize when they're asking us to repay for a song when we can just do the format shifts on our own.

sure, you may say IANAL as long as you want

[codazzo]

but you're gonna get *so sued* when Apple patents the name for its oh-so-cute white vibrator.
iAnal, that is .*)

Could labels invoke DMCA?

[HockeyPuck]

Could the labels claim that Xington has reverse engineered or cracked the process for uploading ring tones?

I personally hate ringtones, even in the office some nut has beethoven beeping and booping... what's wrong with vibrate?

Re:Overpriced

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Why pay twice?

Because the poor shareholders need money. Don't you have any idea how expensive a ferrari, big house with pool, trips to various locations and a fourth wifes's boob job is? You should sympatise a bit with their situation.

Re:nothing to worry about

[LostCluster]

Cellphones are tech devices and must be considered cool. Pop music is automatically uncool. When the two are blended... slashdot doesn't know what to mod it.

Re:nothing to worry about

[jafiwam]

Hint;

- remove your socks
- insert one sock in the other sock
- insert the ringing phone
- swing the socks (with phone in the toes) to bludgeon the offender

Works great, even if the phone breaks the mass in the socks still does damage.

Works with soda cans, coins, ice, or any other innocent until used as bludgeon objects.

Enjoy!

Reverse Annoying

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just going to add a small speaker to my personal stereo player and have it play short pieces of music while I watch everyone reach for their phone to see if it's ringing.

Re:Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you talking about?

dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee

That is a perfectly clear rendition of Beethoven's 9th. "Butchered beyond hope" indeed. You, sir, simply have no appreciation for the finer things.

Though it's sacriledge to say so...

[Blic]

...part of me hopes the RIAA can ban this. I am so @#$% sick of having to listen to long, annoying song clip ringtones erupting out of coworkers cubes at maximum volume, especially when they aren't there and left their cellphone on their desk, and it just plays over and over and over...

Re:nothing to worry about

[djward]

Airport security should arrest anyone with socks on, as they might be used to bludgeon those passengers who SPRING for their cell phones the INSTANT the stewardess says they can.

Oh, wait...

Re:So

[Hogwash McFly]

Well, for a lot of people, it only takes 1 second to announce the fact that your phone is ringing and the other 29 seconds to show everybody that you have a mobile phone, that you have the latest pop ringtone and that someone is calling you...

On another note, the US Court of Appeals ...

[garyebickford]

... has ruled that RIAA does have the right to install microphones and automated tune-recognition systems on sidewalks, hiking trails and hallways througohout the US to 'identify and prosecute lawbreakers' who violate their copyrights by whistling, humming or singing copyrighted songs without permission.

In its ruling, the Court agreed with the precedent cited by RIAA, their successful case against the Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls for royalties accrued as a result of girls singing 'Kumbaya', 'Happy Birthday' and other popular songs around the campfire.

Re:Overpriced

[Marvin_OScribbley]

Don't you have any idea how expensive a ferrari, big house with pool, trips to various locations...

Yes. Yes I do.

Re:nothing to worry about

[ari_j]

I wonder if the music industry would grant amnesty for all file sharing in the past and future for anyone who beats a musical ring tone user beyond the ability to use a phone. I'd start this afternoon.

Re:This is why...

[anticypher]

I made my own ring tone.

It's a 14.4k modem training sequence. Beeeep-dooop braaap-beeep-beep-bip braaaaaappppppppp scrreeeeeeeeeee(for 25 seconds).

My phone has been banned from every telecom facility in the Benelux. On the downside, every time I hear somebody still using an analog modem I check my phone.

the AC

Re:nothing to worry about

[colmore]

That's why you have to use cool "underground" music to announce the fact that your phone is ringing.

So yeah, you'll know who to kick the shit out of when you suddenly start hearing Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach for my Revolver" in the middle of a movie.

But as I'm being killed by irritated people, I'll know in my heart of hearts that I am cooler than them, since I listen to obscure music.

(That was all sarcasm by the way, people who ride big egos because they're "cooler" than other people need to just die. Those assholes make me uncomfortable with my own tastes, I don't want people thinking I'm one of them.)

Re:Great.

[deft]

"I can't wait for every shitty pop song to be blaring out of some asshat's saggy A&F jeans during class when his roommate's older brother calls to say he got the beer."

I know you've been wondering, so I'll confirm it to you. Those are the guys having sex in college.

Ringtones are PUBLIC performances in the USA

[tepples]

When your mobile phone rings, it's often in a "place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered". So if your phone ever rings in a public place, then under U.S. copyright law's definition of "publicly" (17 USC 101 [cornell.edu]), causing your phone to play a copyrighted work whenever a call comes in amounts to performing the work publicly. Copyright law also gives the owner of copyright in a musical work a monopoly on authorizing such public performances (17 USC 106 [cornell.edu]) subject to limitations listed later in the title.

Re:More Noises?

[Anonymous Coward]

While this is a neat idea, I keep mine on vibrate, just because I know how annoying a music ringtone is when its someone elses
yes and when its on vibrate you dont even need to answer just leave in you pocket, smile calmly and try not to stain the upholstery

Re:Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Masturbating while looking at your reflection in the mirror doesn't count as "having sex", you know...

Re:Though it's sacriledge to say so...

[jeffy210]

"left their cellphone on their desk, and it just plays over and over and over..."

My favorite remedy to this? Take their cell phone and put it up in the ceiling tile. Then when they come back, call their phone and laugh as they franticly look around for it. Done this to a couple of co-workers.

fair use 10%? 10% * 10 is the whole!

[speculatrix]

given that most modern pop trash music has only one catch line and repeats endlessly, then they are so self-same similar that if you "steal" 10% you've got the whole song anyway... so you could argue that record 10% is the same as recording 100%, which is thus not fair use!

If you do only take 10% of the song, then perhaps you should only pay 10% of the cost of a single?

Anyway, so much of pop music samples short parts, robs bits of older tracks or is just a plain remix, then who's actually losing out?

Has anyone patented the business model of the RIAA (sue teenagers into submission claiming theft of IP, but don't actually pay all the artists what they are owed)? 'Cos it'd be a very valuable patent - more so than Amazon's half-click one!

Re:More Noises?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if I am using an European carryall?

The fear is...

[sanctimonius hypocrt]

The fear is that people will make 30 second long ringtones out of popular songs.

I fear that too...

Re:So

[TheRaven64]

For me it takes 1 second to announce the fact that I have a call, and then 29 seconds to remember I own a mobile, and then remember where I put it.

Re:Great.

[jrockway]

No, those are the guys whose genitals are falling off because they have no fewer than five STDs. And they're failing Math 070.

Re:Great.

[wk633]

If only we could get the RIAA to go after the idiots in the shaking cars- public performance.